On taking office in 2010, the Coalition Government announced a wholesale review of the Prevent Strategy (often referred to simply as “Prevent”), which was drawn up to tackle violent radicalisation in the UK in the wake of the 7/7 bombings. The original strategy had attracted criticism for its alleged exclusive…

This briefing focuses on the British counter-terrorism landscape as we prepare ourselves for the 2012 Olympic Games. The UK will witness the biggest security operation ever held, amidst an evolving terrorism threat. The Games will also mark a watershed for British security policy, with long-delayed reforms and resource cuts taking…

This paper is the second in a series of short country briefing papers released in 2012 about the online support of populist political parties and street-based groups in Europe. These papers are based on a data set of approximately 13,000 Facebook supporters of these ‘nationalist populist’ parties in 12 European…

The guiding observation behind this report is that despite attracting considerable attention, populist extremist parties and their supporters remain poorly understood. This is largely because debates about this challenge have often failed to engage with a large body of evidence on these parties, their supporters and their motivations. Taking an…

This briefing paper analyzes this new strategy from a gender and human rights perspective, drawing on the United Kingdom’s (U.K.) experience with Prevent—one of the four strands of its counter-terrorism policy—to elucidate the uniquely gendered challenges and opportunities that arise when governments seek to prevent or counter violent extremism (CVE)…

Formed in anticipation of the 2012 Sierra Leone Presidential elections by Freetown youths, the Grassroots Movement for Change established the Say No to Violence Drama project with the incentive of planning and delivering sensitisation plays to marginalised youths in Sierra Leone that are vulnerable to violent political mobilisation.

The 2011 US National Strategy for Counterterrorism maintains the focus of the United States on pressuring al-Qaida’s core, while emphasizing the need to build foreign partnerships and capacity. The strategy states that the US is engaged in a broad, sustained, and integrated campaign together with the concerted efforts of allies,…

Since the 1990s, jihadist terrorists have leveraged the power of the Internet in more imaginative ways than state security services charged with countering them. Terrorist groups are now harnessing the unique characteristics of the new media environment that has taken shape in the past decade, while security services struggle to…

Islamic militants do not seem to have an active presence in Latin America, but the possibility that they could develop links with drug traffickers poses a threat, argues InSight Crime.

This report prepared for the Office for Security and Counter-Terrorism (OSCT) in the UK Home Office, presents the findings of a Rapid Evidence Assessment (REA) into individual disengagement from Al Qa’ida-influenced terrorist groups. The report looks to the literature on street gangs, religious cults and right-wing extremist groups to see…

USAID’s Bureau for the Asia and Middle East contracted Management Systems International (MSI) to conduct an inventory of program monitoring and reporting systems that track progress in countering violent extremism and insurgency (VE/I). This inventory supports the VE/I Steering Committee’s intent to capture useful information from previous and current VE/I…

The terrorist attacks in the USA and UK on 9/11 and 7/7, and subsequent media coverage, have resulted in a heightened awareness of extremists and terrorists. Should educators be exploring terrorism and extremism within their classrooms? If so, what should they be teaching, and how? Dianne Gereluk draws together the…